PBS NewsHour; June 25, 2021, 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT

Is the right repair for her at the right time. I am doing the things I used to do, but not feeling fatigued. It's like a new me. Good evening. I'm Judy Woodruff. On the NewsHour tonight. Do we have a deal? The road ahead, the president, and a bipartisan group of senators agree on a nearly $1 trillion plan to update the nation's critical infrastructure. Then, a tragic collapse, at least 99 people are missing after a condominium building crumbles near Miami Beach. Plus, COVID's toll. The pandemic causes the largest drop in life expectancy since World War II, with communities of color disproportionately hit. And critical race theory. Why a battle in one Virginia school district illustrates the growing national controversy over teaching race in public schools?

All that and more on tonight's PBS NewsHour. Major funding for the PBS NewsHour has been provided by: Before we talk about your investments, what's new? Audrey's expecting. Twins. Let me get closer to the twins. Changing fast. At Fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. Johnson and Johnson. BNSF Railway. Consumer Cellular. Financial services firm Raymond James. The Kendida Fund committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. More at Kendidafund.org. Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security at Carnegie.org. And with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. This program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you. We have two lead stories tonight. The tragic collapse of a residential building in Surfside, Florida next to Miami Beach has rescue workers scrambling to find

at least 99 unaccounted for people in the rubble. While here in Washington, President Biden's push for a sweeping infrastructure bill has taken a giant step forward today. White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor begins with that story. At the White House, a rare presidential appearance in the driveway to announce a big bipartisan deal. We had a really good meeting and answer a direct question we have a deal. The agreement came after President Biden in a bipartisan group of senators settled on a framework for an infrastructure bill in a compromise that both sides are praising. I'm pleased to see today we're able to come together on a core infrastructure package. This is not non-infrastructure items without new taxes. And with the commitment from Republicans and Democrats alike that we're going to get this across the finish line. No one got everything they wanted in this package. We all gave some to get some because what we did was put first the needs of our country. The total price tag of the package

is $1.2 trillion over eight years. Over five years, it's $973 billion. Overall, there's $579 billion in new spending. As Republicans wanted, it focuses more on traditional items like roads, bridges, broadband, and the power grid among other areas. So the scope of this deal is much narrower than President Biden's initial $2.2 trillion proposal. But President Biden insists Democrats will pass a separate deal with their infrastructure priorities, aimed at families and communities. But if only one comes to me. If this is only me that comes to me, I'm not signing. It's in tandem. The framework does not include money for so-called human infrastructure that many Democrats want, from child care to climate change to anti-poverty efforts. Progressives led by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders are demanding that those items be addressed simultaneously in a separate bill.

It would advance through a budget process known as reconciliation that requires only a simple majority in the 50-50 Senate. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. I think it is way too small, paltry, pitiful. And I will insist on a second package that not only addresses more roads, bridges, and other tangible assets, but also human infrastructure. On the House side, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was equally blunt. There ain't going to be an infrastructure bill unless we have the reconciliation bill passed by the United States Senate. Late today on the Senate floor, minority leader Mitch McConnell said he was encouraged by the day's progress. But he criticized Democrats and President Biden for insisting that the bipartisan deal be passed along with a Democrat-backed reconciliation bill. Less than two hours after publicly commending our colleagues and actually endorsing the bipartisan agreement,

the President took the extraordinary step of threatening to veto it. But a real assessment of whether can get the 60 votes to pass is unlikely until after the Senate returns from a two-week recess that begins tomorrow. And he joins us now from the White House, along with Lisa Desjardins at the Capitol. And Lisa, to you first, we know senators who were part of this have spent many weeks trying to come up with this deal. Give us some of the details of what exactly is in here. Judy, this is a huge moment. Now, this bill does have a long road ahead. This hasn't crossed the finish line yet. But this is a very big victory for bipartisanship in an age of divide. And also, this would be, if it goes through, with the largest single transportation bill in American history. So let's talk about what's in it really quickly, a lot at the top, some of the biggest categories. Roads and bridges, over $100 billion for those. Another $100 billion plus for rails and public transportation.

Now, there is also, in this bill, a number of categories on climate. And it depends on how you add up the map. But it's between 15 billion and 60 billion. That's everything from electric vehicle charging stations to mitigations for our coastlines, dealing with ecosystems, addressing the effects already of climate change. And then, finally, one thing I want to highlight, $55 billion for clean water and pipes. That's for things like changing out lead pipes that are still in so many parts of America. Judy, I could go on and on. This bill has a lot of money for the power grid, for airports, for our ports at sea, for ferries, for broadband. It is a massive bill. And Lisa, you and others are pointing out. It is not as much as the president originally wanted. But there's still a lot of money in here. How are they going to pay for it? This was the toughest part of reaching this point in the deal. And I have to tell you, we just got the official release from senators laying out how they pay for it.

Judy, there are no dollar figures next to the categories. Fortunately, I was able to get a copy of what the dollar figures were from one of the senators who saw that. And some of the biggest pay for things like taking unspent COVID money and using that, also changing how the IRS operates, helping boost the IRS so it could collect more taxes and force basically the law on tax cheats. I think overall, Lisa Murkowski put it well. It's a smorgasbord of pay for's. There are no tax increases in this. This is what Republicans wanted. But when you do that, that means that there are a lot of things in here that are in the great area, a kind of questionable math that I think we'll be looking at for a long time to come. I want to just give a sense quickly of the scope of this bill. This is really what brought everybody together. If you look at the most recent large transportation bills, the last three, for example, if you see, look at the one today. It is almost twice as much as the biggest bills previous to this. How did this come together? One last anecdote.

I'm told by senators in the room, Judy, that yesterday things were so tense, this almost fell completely apart. Senator John Tester of Montana went in the room, put his hands down, and said, guys, we have to get this big boy done. And then everyone sort of took a breath and did find a way to get it across this initial finish line. Interesting about Senator Tester's role. Senator Tester of Montana. So Yamiche, we heard a lot from President Biden on the campaign trail when he was running for president. He wanted infrastructure, past, tell us more about his role in getting to where we are today and where this goes from here. Well, this bipartisan infrastructure bill, this huge bill, it's like President Biden catching his white whale. He had said over and over again on the campaign trail that he was going to be for bipartisanship, that he was going to be working across the aisle. And now you have this mood here at the White House today of real jubilant, of feeling like here is President Biden proving people wrong. And that's why we saw the President do a couple rare things today. Just a few feet away from me is the White House driveway. We never see the President come up to the microphones

that are usually stationed there. But this time, the President swaggered up with Republicans and Democratic senators and announced that there was a deal. You could see the happiness in his face. And then, of course, he held that impromptu press conference explaining how they got to this deal, explaining all of the different things that were in it. Now, I've been talking to White House sources and they underscore that this bill they think is transformational. And they put it into even more context here. In 1956, under President Eisenhower, the interstate highway system was constructed. And in today's dollars, that would be over $500 billion. This bill tops that. So that is what the White House is wanting to underscore here today. And when it comes to the President's role, he was very, very engaged. The President, before he left for Europe for NATO and did G7, he underscored that he wanted to get a deal done. When I came back, I talked to White House officials immediately and they said that their prospect was better than when the President laughed. And that tells you that the White House was on Capitol Hill doing this work, ironing out these numbers in the details. And finally, Yamiche, is there an early sense there at the White House of what this could mean

for the rest of the President's agenda? Well, that is the big question. It's the question that I put to the President today when he held that impromptu press conference at the White House in the East Room. And I told, I asked the President, what does this mean for voting rights or for police reform? What have you learned in working with Republicans that informs the way forward? And he told me that this really is about the idea that he wants to try to push forward with all of his different agenda items. But he also said that he was focused in some ways really on voting rights. He said that he made some news today saying that he's going to be touring the country on voting rights. When I talk to White House officials as well, they say caution when it comes to whether or not other bipartisanship will come through this. But even when you look at this deal, we have to remind people that the timing here is still in flux. There was some talk of it being in September or possibly in the fall. So there's a real question about how the President is going to get Democrats on that reconciliation bill. So even as the President is thinking about what's next, we have to underscore that Democrats still have some work to do on really getting this two-track system all the way through. But bipartisanship lives today, Judy. And that is something that is rare to say here.

I head turning day at the White House, Yamiche Alcindor, Lisa Desjardins. We thank you both. Welcome. And for the view from inside the West Wing, I spoke a short time ago with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Jen Psaki, welcome back to the NewsHour. Thank you for being here. Why did the President agree to this? It is a lot smaller than the package he originally proposed. Well, it is, Judy, because he believes that compromise isn't a dirty word. And that it's important to find ways to work together where there can be agreement. Even when you reserve the option, as he has done of moving forward alone where there isn't agreement. But he likes this package, and this package has a lot in it that he's excited about because it's a historic investment in infrastructure, the largest investment in rail since the creation of Amtrak, the largest investment in public transit in a hundred years, if not more. It will make sure that kids have access to clean drinking water that broadband is expanded across the country to rural communities and lower income communities.

There is a lot to be excited about here. You also, though, heard him, Judy, make clear today that he wanted to see this package move forward in tandem through the budget reconciliation package, which will include the American Families Plan key priorities that are also vitally important to him. But in doing that, he's taking a risk, because at this point, it's not clear you're going to get 50 Democrats on board for that so-called reconciliation big spending plan. And in the meantime, you have, for example, environmental advocates who are out there saying, we were counting on President Biden to be with us on some of these environmental measures that didn't make it into this final bill. What do you say to them? I'd say, first, that this bill has a lot that is going to help protect our climate in it. It has investments in EV charging stations, key tax credits. It will make our infrastructure climate resilient. It will also rebuild and remove lead from pipes and drinking water around the country. He believes that good paying union jobs can be done, can be created in a way that is good for a climate.

He also made clear today, Judy, that he wants to do more and that he is going to be a climate president. Continue to be and they can rely on him. So he wants more in terms of tax credits. That's something he's going to keep pushing for in this next package that's going to move forward. And he is going to keep fighting until he signs both of them and has them on his desk. But isn't he also risking the strengthening of home care workers, which is something that he said was essential originally in this package? It is absolutely essential. It's going to be in the reconciliation package. And that's something that he's going to work every single day. Work is hard out to get past and get done. As you noted, we need 50 votes. We now all over Democrats to stand together. That's something we're going to keep working on. In terms of how this gets paid for, you're looking for the IRS to lean a lot harder on people who haven't been paying all their taxes. You're looking to get $100 billion. How do you know? Why are you confident that the IRS can do this? They've been asked to do this before. Well, we need to give them, invest in them

and make sure they have the resources to do it. They're very understaffed. They're underfunded. And we've been, we know from our economists and from working closely with experts in this area that if we give them additional resources and support that they need, that they can recoup funding that will help us pay for these important investments. Jen Psaki, what is the president going to be saying to Democrats who are reluctant right now to sign on to that other, again, so-called reconciliation bill, a lot of money for his other priorities? The president's going to say that there are key priorities here that are, shouldn't be seen through a partisan lens. It's important to make sure we have universal pre-K available to kids across the country. That two years of community college is something that's made possible. That we extend the child tax credit for an additional five years to make sure that we're giving families the help they need. These are things that the American people support they want. There's an important discussion and negotiation that will happen among Democrats about what this final package looks like. But the president will keep fighting for the key components that were in his American families plan

and in his budget that he proposed just a few months ago. And finally, what are the prospects do you really believe that this leads to more bipartisan agreement? Or is this a one-off? Here's to hoping, Judy. The president came in. He believes that the people American people elected him to work when you can in a bipartisan way. See where you can find common ground. That's how he approached this. That's how we ended up at this big historic day today. And he'll look for opportunities to do that for priorities moving forward. Jen Psaki, press secretary to President Biden. Thank you very much. Thank you, Judy. Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia was one of 21 senators to negotiate the bipartisan infrastructure framework that was announced today. Senator Warner was also at the White House meeting today with the president and the Senator joins me now. It's so good to see you. Again, it is not often Senator Warner that we see Republicans and Democrats agreeing on anything.

How significant was this announcement? Well, I think it was very significant. I think it showed, again, that Joe Biden knows how Congress works. His White House team was involved with the 10 of us who were really engaged on a daily basis for the last couple of weeks. And both sides had to give up certain things they wanted. But the product we have, $576 billion of new federal spending on infrastructure is a record investment. And we're not just talking about roads and bridges. We're talking about broadband. We're talking about resiliency for coastal communities from rising sea level. We're talking about making our grid a lot smarter. We're even including investments for electric vehicle charging stations, electric buses. And frankly, the whole bus industry is going to go electric. They're going to be made, think about all the school buses. Are they going to be made in China?

Are they going to be made here? We've taken a major down payment on all of these items. And I would just point out very quickly that this is a big deal. But I would point out just two weeks ago, the Senate and the bipartisan fashion put together a $250 billion bill to deal with China and take on issues like semiconductors. And I will remind your viewers that I came on your show back in November and December when this same for the most part bipartisan group came up with the last COVID package. So I agree there's a lot of places we're pretty dysfunctional, but at least on this item, I think we've made some great progress. And Senator, we are now seeing, and as we just spoke with Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary who underlined this for us, the president is insisting that he's only going to go along with this bipartisan plan. If he also gets a big package of spending through the so-called reconciliation method, that means 50 Democratic senators are going to have to sign on to that.

We're already hearing from the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, who's saying the president has reneged on what he originally said. What do you say to Republicans who are looking at this? Well, as somebody who sat in the White House today, with the president, the president made absolutely clear that he supported this package and wanted it done. He also made very clear to all of us, and I'm on the budget committee, so I'll be in the middle of this one as well, that there were a whole lot of things that the president wanted on issues like childcare, on human capital investment, on cleaner energy tax credits, that he didn't get in this legislation, and that he was still going to fight for those. So there was no mystery that there was going to be another issue to be dealt with, and that there are certain things, like the fact that American businesses now pay the lowest percentage of corporate taxes of any of the 35 industrial nations.

I was a business guy for a long time before I went into politics, but being the bottom of the barrel in terms of some businesses paying their fair share, that's not right. So, you know, I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and say, where can we make our tax code fairer? And what are some of the other items that didn't get included in the infrastructure package that will come back in reconciliation? I think it was just a acknowledgement of reality. I would love to have, you know, some of my Republican friends, you know, deal with the reconciliation issues as well, but, you know, we went into this infrastructure conversation where they had already said, we're not going to touch taxes in any way. It's a little hard to talk about new spending when you don't touch taxes. Two quick questions, but important ones. One is, do you believe you, there will be 50 senators to support this spending package that the president says he has to have or this doesn't go forward? I think there will be 50 senators that will support a plan to raise

some additional revenues and take on parts of the president's agenda. I don't think there may be 50 senators that will agree to some of the numbers that are being thrown around by some of my more progressive colleagues. But I think they understand that, you know, that's part of this next negotiating process. And in terms of Republicans, are they going to stick with this agreement once they see that it has to be accompanied by this big spending measure that's passed only with Democratic votes? Well, Judy, you know, I've been at this for weeks on end. It's been a lot of hours. There's never been any doubt that we were going to come back to reconciliation. Matter of fact, one of the arguments that the Republicans made was, gosh, guys, let's do this and are more reasonable fashion. Let's do this with the kind of policy agenda that, you know, they can agree to. Because if they don't, as one Republican senator said, I had a negotiating position was a little bit tough

if I say no when you guys are going to just go off and do it on your own in a much more extreme way. So there was no lack of understanding that it was going to be a second step. You know, whether leader McConnell will try to, you know, torpedo this effort, I hope not because I think, you know, going forward, I think we're going to have many more than 11 Republican senators who have got signed up. I think we'll get 20 or 25. I think that's important for the American public. But I also think it's important and President Biden made this point today and Senator Collins and I also reaffirmed it. You know, that the rest of the world are adversaries like Putin and Russia and President Xi and China are arguing to the rest of the world that, you know what, American democracy just doesn't work that well anymore. I would argue this, putting points on the board in a broad bipartisan way on infrastructure, important for the economy, important for jobs, but also important in terms of echoing President Biden's message that America's leadership is back and that we can be counted on. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you, Judy. Our second major story tonight is in the Miami area where rescuer searched the ruins of a beachfront condominium building after it collapsed before dawn. At least one person was confirmed killed, but nearly 100 are missing. John Yang reports. Chaos early this morning in Miami-Dade County went part of a 12-story condo building suddenly collapsed. It happened around 130 AM in Surfside, Florida. Emergency crews rushed to the scene to search for people trapped in the rubble. The catastrophic destruction became more apparent as daylight broke. This is what part of the building looked like before, housing about half of the building's 130 units. Now, just a pile of rubble. The building has literally pancakes.

There's just feet in between stories where there were 10 feet. That is heartbreaking because it doesn't mean to me. We're going to be as successful as we would want to be to find people alive. Searcher operations continued as many residents remained unaccounted for. A reunification site for residents and relatives was set up at a nearby community center. Some embraced one another. Others wept. Nicholas Fernandez has friends who live in the building. I came running here and I'm trying to see what's going on when I saw the building. I'm just hoping that I'm dreaming. The Florida Governor Ron DeSantis toured the scene. TV doesn't do a justice. I mean, it is really, really traumatic to see the collapse of a massive structure like that. As the search for survivors and victims continues, the search for the cause of the collapse begins. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm John Yang.

And for the very latest on this, we are joined now by phone with the mayor of Surfside, Charles Burkett, who you just heard in John's report. Mayor Burkett, thank you so much for talking with us. Please tell us what is the very latest on the search for survivors. And again, we are so sorry for the loss. Thank you. The latest is that we have all resources completely focused on pulling people out of the rubble. And we will continue to do that until that job is done. There's no time limit on that. We'll just continue to do that until we finish. We've had a couple of setbacks today. The weather did not cooperate as much as we would have liked. But we're back on track right now, and we're running it full force. There have been news reports of sounds coming from the rubble. Can you confirm that that's the case? Well, listen, we were out there. I was out there at two o'clock this morning. So it's been a long day of stops and starts. The dogs got here around four o'clock in the morning.

We did have some hits. And which is good. But not enough. We did find a little boy in the rubble, which you probably are aware of. And we have had other meaningful hits, although the work continues right now. A little boy alive. A little boy alive. 10 years old. And Mr. Mayor, is there a sense? Do you have the materials you need, the people you need to pursue this as aggressively? Go ahead. I will tell you that I've had a call from the president of the United States. Both of our United States senators have called me. Scott Rubio. The governor has been here. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is here. And the mayor of Dave County has been here on scene. The resources are unbelievable. We're not short on resources. We're just a little short on luck right now. I'm hoping that's going to change.

Is there any information at this point, Mayor Burkett, on what might have the cause have been? It's well, you know, this is America. This is the United States where first world country buildings do not fall down like this. These two buildings went down, not unlike what we saw in 2001. It was just terrific. And it's almost, there are no words for it, except that we're dealing with it. And we're going to stay on it until the job is done. The answer to your question is, no, we don't have any information on why this happened, other than a couple of theories. But, you know, now's not the time for those theories. Now's the time to save lives, and that's what I intend to do. And just in connection with that, we can understand that. There are also reports that the building was about to undergo refurbishing, having to do with the structure. Can you add anything to that? I don't know that that's completely accurate.

I do know that they were re-roofing the building. And as you know, buildings are re-roofed all the time, and they don't fall down. So it's hard to imagine that that was the impetus. I mean, there was obviously something seriously wrong here. And we need to get to the bottom of it, and we will. That, I promise. But right now, we're focused 100% on saving lives and pulling people out of that rubble, because that's all that matters. We're going to do it 24 hours a day, and we're going to do it around the clock until it's done. No question about it. That is the priority. Mayor Charles Burkett of Surfside, Florida. And again, our thoughts are with everyone in the community. Thank you for your help. I'm Vanessa Ruiz, in for Stephanie Sy, and NewsHour West will return to Judy Woodruff

and the full show after the latest headlines. A moment of reckoning in Canada grew even darker. Indigenous groups announced investigators have found some 600 graves were a school once stood. The Roman Catholic Church ran the school for Indian children in Saskatchewan from 1899 to 1997. Last month, 215 sets of remains were found at a similar site in British Columbia. President Biden pledged today that thousands of Afghan interpreters for the U.S. military will be evacuated as American forces leave. Some 50,000 Afghan could be relocated to other countries pending entry to the U.S. It is fear their lives could be in danger once the U.S. withdrawal is completed. The Associated Press reports the pullout will be largely finished in two weeks, after which roughly 650 troops are expected to remain to provide security for diplomats. The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has officially announced a select committee

will investigate the January assault on the U.S. Capitol. Democrats had wanted a bipartisan commission, but Senate Republicans blocked that. Today, Pelosi said Congress cannot wait any longer to get the full story of January 6th. It is imperative that we establish the truth of that day and ensure that an attack of that kind cannot happen and that we root out the causes of it all. The select committee will investigate and report on the facts and the causes of the attack, and it will report recommendations for the prevention and any future attack. A state appeals court today suspended Rudy Giuliani from practicing law in New York. The court condemned his false claims, as President Trump's attorney, that the 2020 election was stolen. Lawyers for Giuliani said they will appeal. President Biden hit the road today to push COVID vaccinations. His visit to Raleigh, North Carolina, followed word that the nation will miss his goal of vaccinating 70 percent

of U.S. adults, at least partially by July 4th. Meanwhile, San Francisco has become the first U.S. city to require that municipal workers be inoculated. The mandate takes effect once a vaccine has full federal approval. Right now, vaccines are being dispensed on an emergency basis, and Hawaii will drop all testing and quarantine rules for vaccinated domestic travelers starting two weeks from today. The Biden administration has extended a ban on evictions for another 30 days to July 31st, to help those unable to pay rent during the pandemic. But the CDC said today this is to be the final extension. And on Wall Street today, stocks got a push from the news of the bipartisan infrastructure agreement in Washington. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 322 points to close at 34,196. The NASDAQ rose 98 points to yet another record high. The S&P 500 added 24.

Still to come on the NewsHour, how the pandemic caused the largest drop in life expectancy since World War II. The national growing controversy over teaching race in public schools, and much more. This is the PBS NewsHour from WETA Studios in Washington and in the West from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. A troubling news study has found that between 2018 and 2020, U.S. life expectancy decreased by the biggest margin since World War II. And as William Brangham reports, the COVID-19 pandemic took an outsized toll in the United States compared to other similar high-income nations. Judy, as a whole, life expectancy in the U.S. dropped by nearly two years. But for black and brown Americans, the toll was even worse.

Among white Americans, life expectancy dropped by 1.4 years. But for black Americans, it fell by 3.2 years. And for Latino Americans, life spans dropped by almost 3.9 years. And what's more, when you compare these declines to other similar nations, like France or Israel or the Netherlands, the drop in the U.S. was more than eight times higher. Dr. Steven Woolf is the lead author of the study, just published in the British Medical Journal. He's Director Emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University Enrichment. Dr. Woolf, very good to see you. We're really a striking study that you have put out. For people who don't follow longevity trends the way you have, a nearly two-year decline in lifespan. How significant is that? It's massive. That level of decline for people like us who study these data is so large that we haven't seen this kind of decline since World War II

in 1943, to give people some perspective. A few years ago, there was a fair amount of press coverage about declining life expectancy in the United States. We had a period of three consecutive years where life expectancy was declining at the same time that it was climbing in other countries. When that decline was happening, it was declining by 0.1 years each year. And it was very worrying. 0.1, and now we're talking about 1.9. Yeah, exactly. So this is considerably more. As you said, that's about eight and a half times the average decrease that we've seen in peer countries. I want to get to that comparison about peer countries in a second. But first off, as I mentioned, the racial disparities, again, are just seem so glaring in this report. What do you attribute that to? Well, we've been tracking racial disparities in health for generations now. We anticipated a difference in the decrease in life expectancy for people of color, but we were really horrified by the magnitude. 3.3 years in African Americans, 3.9 in Hispanic Americans.

And what jumps off the page when we see data like this is systemic racism. This is at the heart of why it is that generation after generation, people of color have experienced different health outcomes. Skin color is not a biological reason for people to have higher death rates and race is really a social construct. So really what we're seeing is the effect of decisions in policy society has produced that limit opportunities for good health among people of color. And certainly we saw that during the pandemic play out, but as you're describing that happens even prior to the pandemic, about those comparisons to those other countries. These are countries that have similar health systems. They are wealthy countries. They are affluent and comparable to us in so many ways. And yet we are doing so much worse than they are. How do you explain that? Well, it's a trend that's been underway for many years, actually began in the 1990s.

And it's not for lack of spending on health care. We spend an enormous amount of health care on health care in this country compared to other countries and have so for a long time. But as a doctor, I will tell you that health care only accounts for about 10 to 20 percent of our health outcomes. Our health is really shaped by our social and economic conditions where we live in our environment. And that's what we're falling short compared to other countries. Our health care system could be better, but what's really driving this gap between the United States and other countries is really a lack of investment in our people and in social capital. Can you tease that out a little bit more? Because I think that that's a connection that people often forget. The term of art, I know, is social determinants of health. But for a lay audience, what do you mean by that? We mean things like access to education, income, stable jobs, a livable wage, stable housing, and being in a neighborhood environment that's good for your health. That actually matters far more to our health than what doctors and hospitals do. The public doesn't typically think of those as public health issues,

but some of the topics in earlier segments about infrastructure and human capital investments. And even the housing instability are, in our view, public health policies. And it certainly seems that remedying those is more than just a vaccine that will help us put this particular virus at bay. I mean, I know we talk about getting back to normal all the time, but it sounds like maybe normal is not the best thing to be. Yeah, we're delighted to see the pandemic receding into the rearview mirror. But normal is not a good place for us. As I've already said, Americans are dying earlier than people in other countries. We're sicker than people in other countries. And that gap is widening. So not doing anything about it is only going to make matters progressively worse. And the legacy of systemic racism is with us still, regardless of whether the pandemic is over with. We talked to, touched about this briefly, but the role that the opioid epidemic played,

that certainly receded from the headlines, but we know that that continued as a major driver. Is it your sense that once we stop focusing so much on the virus, we will realize that that too is still an ongoing, undercurrent in our country? Well, it's important to know it did not go away. And in fact, it looks like overdose deaths have increased during the pandemic. I said that, though, although opioid deaths and drug overdoses are the leading cause of rising mortality rates in much of our population, there are many other health conditions that where American health status is also deteriorating. It's a systemic problem going on in our country that's causing the health of Americans to fail relative to our peers. And solving the opioid epidemic as important as that is, will not get the systemic problems resolved. I know this is a complicated question, but are there obvious policy remedies that come out of this? I mean, it seems like this is another glaring red warning to our society

that it's not about just a virus. Do you have any suggestions for policymakers as to how we help dent this? The solutions to this health inequity problem really relate to policies that, as I said, people don't think of as medicine or public health. Investments in broadening access to education, providing good 21st century jobs, especially for parts of the country that have struggled the most with job loss, and where many of these death rates are increasing the most. And dealing with the inequities that people of color and low-income communities have been struggling with for many years is going to do far more to address this problem than spending more on doctors and hospitals. Dr. Steven Woolf, thank you very much for being here. Thanks for coming in. It's a pleasure. Critical race theory is a way of thinking and teaching about America's past

and present by looking at the role of systemic racism. What we've just been discussing. But the very term itself, critical race theory, has become a political flashpoint across the country, especially when it comes to how to teach young people about justice and equity in America. As Amna Nawaz reports for our Race Matters series, the debate over its potential role in school curricula has set off a firestorm that has royal school districts and state legislatures nationwide. It's already over. It's about to be over. Next year, Jameson Maddox will be a senior here in Loudon County, Virginia. His favorite subject is history. Even though he felt black history was lacking. I think there could be some things happened in history that should have been taught. In school, did you learn about the Tulsa massacre? No. Did you learn about Juneteenth? No. Do you feel like those are things that should be taught as part of your formal education? Yes, definitely.

Definitely. Jameson's mother Vanessa agrees. This is American history. All of it should be taught in a certain context and also age-appropriate. Maddox, who works as a job recruiter and her husband, raised both their sons in this affluent northern Virginia suburb over the last two decades. Last year, as the national racial reckoning resonated here, Vanessa joined a Facebook group pushing what they see as anti-racism efforts in school. When I saw the anti-racist parent group, I'm like, I got to be in that. What spurred you to join that group in the first place? What has happened? There is a definite need for a group like this. I like to be surrounded by like-minded, fair-minded, equitable people. You don't have to think like me. You don't have to be like me. But you do have to be anti-racist. Not everyone in Loudoun County sees it that way. There were parents that were just sick of it. They were just sick of constantly being told. If you don't agree with me, then, you know, you're a racist. Ian Pryor's two daughters are in elementary school here.

He's a former Trump administration justice department spokesman now leading a group called Fight for Schools, a political action committee pushing back on equity and inclusion measures. We're not about not teaching history. We're about teaching history in an objective way that is not represented as America is systemically racist. When you're looking not at individual acts of racism but the systemic racism that exists within America's educational institutions, what would you suggest be done right now? So there's a balancing act here of making sure that, you know, there's equal opportunity for all that were committed to meritocracy, but also that, you know, when we are trying to figure out how to deal with any kind of social problems, we do not overstep and overreact. There's two sides right there. Parents who agree with Pryor are now part of a growing chorus opposing what's known as critical race theory or CRT, often a graduate level framework that examines how the legacy of slavery and segregation in America is embedded in legal systems and policies.

The thing is, critical race theory isn't being taught here, but that didn't stop dozens of parents from flooding a recent school board meeting to protest it. The critical race theory has its roots in cultural Marxism. It should have no place in our schools. I will do everything I possibly can to fight to the bitter end until you prove to me that you are not teaching my children that they are racist just because they're white. That outrage echoes messaging ricocheting across right-wing media. Critical race theory is racist. I don't see critical theory race theory in our Declaration of Independence. Much of this can be traced back to a September 2020 directive by then President Trump, instructing agencies to identify and halt funding of anti-biased training for federal employees that suggests, quote, the United States is an inherently racist or evil country. On his first day in office, President Biden used an executive order to revoke the Trump administration's action. I hear the talk of critical race theory.

I immediately get a signal it's an alarming system for me because it's a misrepresentation and misuse of the word. Jalaya Liles Dunn is the director of Learning for Justice, which offers resources for teachers to create anti-biased learning experiences. Culturally relevant anti-racist instruction models are needed. We need a classroom set up, so not just instruction, but we also need a space that lets children know you are welcome here. The inclusive education is a space where we all are at the table together. We all hear everyone's story. The debate over which stories are included and how they're taught has fueled pushback. Critical race theory is now being leveraged as a catch-all phrase by opponents of equity and inclusion efforts in public education. In May, House Republicans denounced it at a Capitol Hill press conference. Critical race theory is a divisive ideology. As did former President Trump at the North Carolina GOP convention this month. The Biden administration is pushing toxic critical race theory

and illegal discrimination into our children's schools. Nationwide, Republican lawmakers are now legislating on the idea. According to Ed Week, as of June 18th, 25 states have introduced bills or taken other steps to restrict education on racism and bias. That includes five states, Texas, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, where bills have already been signed into law. Arizona's proposed bias teaching bill could mean a potential $5,000 penalty for teachers. Texas's bill, Effective September 1, says teachers cannot be compelled to discuss current events. And if they do, they must, quote, strive to explore the topic from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference. Some educators, meanwhile, are holding Teach the Truth rallies, fighting what they call unwarranted legislation. I think we're raising up future voters who will not have a well-rounded perspective on their own community and society.

Valerie Wolfson teaches eighth grade social studies in New Hampshire, where a new bill would prohibit, so-called, divisive concepts related to sex and race from schools. Teachers would be under pressure for severe censorship or fear of that public judgment. It's set up for people to report on you. And you think it could have a chilling effect on what people teach in their classrooms? Completely. Back in Loudoun County, we sat down with school superintendent, Scott Ziegler. We have said for months now, we are not teaching critical race theory in our schools. We're not using any type of program to, quote, unquote, indoctrinate or convert our children. Our equity work is all about doing what is best for children. That equity work was implemented after outside probes found black and brown students disproportionately disciplined in Loudoun County, facing racial insults and racially motivated violence. And students of color harmed by school practices. What was decided at that time was we need to endeavor on a program, a systematic program to help our teachers with this,

to give them the knowledge and understanding so they can have conversations around race, very open and very honest, and sometimes very tough conversations so that they can make our schools better for students. The district put anti-biased training in place for teachers, the majority of whom are white. That was back in 2019, Ian Pyer's group launched this year in 2021. Superintendents says there is no critical race theory being taught here. Why are you arguing against something that's not being taught? No one is saying that they're teaching critical race theory in Loudoun County public schools like its physics or chemistry. It's being implemented through teacher trainings and that, you know, ultimately drips down to how they teach our students and it's not a subject, but it's a way of viewing the world. Vanessa Maddick says she and other parents will continue to push for equity in schools and a more inclusive education around American history. The opposition groups are saying, we don't care if you teach black history

or, you know, other parts that haven't been taught, we just don't want you to say that all white people are evil. That's not what equity states. That's not what we're saying. We're saying that all history should be taught, regardless of race. The screw year in Loudoun County has just ended, but the debate over what next year will look like is far from over. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Amna Nawaz in Loudoun County, Virginia. Jubi Arriola-Headley is a black queer poet and first-generation American whose work explores themes of manhood, vulnerability, and joy. His debut collection of poems, Original Kink, was recently released, and tonight,

he gives his brief but spectacular take on the call to write and the world that has shaped him. It's part of our arts and culture coverage, Canvas. Sometimes when I'm writing at home, I don't feel entirely as if I'm writing it alone. I always have on my shoulders Phyllis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston. I'm writing for untold numbers of people. This poem is called Transubstantiation. The nerve of you to think you could vesper hogs hooves in the feasts, that hymns could be coaxed in the hip hop, that wall would kink and rope and lock into something resembling God, that you could stand the lash or the late shift without wilting, spirit legacy from the spaces between the words speak in a voice that booms,

not breaks. Hope. Fix your face to smile like your teeth wasn't buttery yellow. Be better than bitter. Be roiling. Enjoy. Be. The more I read this poem, the more I feel I'm channeling the thoughts and feelings of hundreds, thousands, millions of voices that we won't ever hear. I come from a long line of Barbadians from the Caribbean who love to tell stories. I am the first person in my family to be born in the United States. Since the age of 11, aware that I was something that I wasn't supposed to be, I was gay. I didn't have the strength at 11, 12, 13, 14, to stand up and be my authentic self with my father.

And it wasn't until I got into college that I felt like I had any positive role model to sort of show me how I could navigate the world in this queer body. I just was overcome with this imperative to write a book. But then poems started coming, and it became a conversation about living in a fat black body when the world tries to thug and predator and criminalize that body. How vulnerability is key to preserving your own authenticity and humanity. That is maybe my definition of vulnerability, taking the risk of being known and hoping to be loved regardless. My name is Jubi Arriola-Headley and this is my brief but spectacular take on being me. And you can see all of our brief but spectacular episodes

at pbs.org slash NewsHour slash brief. And on the NewsHour online, many of the millions of workers forced out of a job by the pandemic have been slowly returning to work. But in many cases, they're looking to new industries altogether, either by necessity or by choice. We hear from people across the country about how the pandemic has changed the way they work and what they look for in a job and how that might change the market. You can read more on our website, that's pbs.org slash NewsHour. And that is the NewsHour for tonight. I'm Judy Woodruff. Join us online. And again, here tomorrow evening for all of us at the PBS NewsHour thank you. Please stay safe. And we'll see you soon. Major funding for the PBS NewsHour has been provided by... Architect. Beekeeper. Mentor. Raymond James Financial Advisor. tailors advice to help you live your life.

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for Public Broadcasting. And by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you. This is PBS NewsHour West. From WETA Studios in Washington. And from our bureau at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. [music] KQED thanks our members and community partners for their support. Thank you. Thank you.

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